Stephanie Churchill is a talented new voice, writing reality-based fantasy that reads like historical fiction. She is currently working on the sequel to The Scribe's Daughter, The King’s Daughter, which she hopes to release by the end of 2017.

"Woe is me. I think I'm turning into a god."

Contrary to the suggestion of Vespasian’s famous last words, no, I am not dying, and no, I am not turning into a god. The quote is useful however, because it points to a very significant thing I learned while writing The Scribe’s Daughter, and its follow up, The King’s Daughter. Or rather something I learned that I still need to learn. That is, the problem of how to write effectively from the perspective of a limited character or reader while simultaneously being an omniscient, omnipotent author. How do authors know how to unroll the scroll of mystery, doling out just enough clues along the way for the satisfaction of the reader while not giving too much away?

I didn’t set out to write a mystery. I set out to write a character-driven, pseudo-historical book about a young woman who had a bad hand dealt to her. (And if I’m honest, a series of bad hands repeated over and over through the book.) The series of hardships and traumas she experiences grow her, develop her, turn her into a better version of herself than she was at the beginning of the book. Never mind that writing a mystery was not a conscious decision. The mysteries driving the plot became the tool to accomplish my main goal, the river in which Kassia swam in order to develop her character. As Henry James said, “Plot is characters under stress.”

Since the element of mystery in my book caught me off guard, I wasn’t prepared to know how to approach the unraveling of those aspects as I wrote. When I first sat down at my computer, I anticipated that the craft of writing involved nothing more than telling the tale as it unfolded before my eyes. I found that it was much more complicated than this. I realized that as the author, I know more than anyone else, and this knowledge had to be doled out slowly, carefully, and with much deliberation.

How subtle could I be? How much could I rely on readers to catch? If I made things too obvious, astute readers would grow bored. I didn’t want to insult their intelligence. On the other hand, if I remained overly obscure, readers on the other side of the spectrum might finish the book scratching their heads wondering how in the world that just happened, feeling blindsided and cheated. As an author, you risk alienating one or the other audience. Thus the necessity of careful, thoughtful deliberation.

It is difficult to know the beginning, middle, and end of a story as an omniscient author while writing it from the perspective of a person who is discovering the story as it unfolds – either as one of the characters or as a reader. As the author, I had to constantly jump between broad plot arc, being the only one who could see the full parade from the helicopter above, and the “boots on the ground” parade float which can only see what’s just ahead. I had to maintain notes along the way that reminded me who knew what at any point in the story. At times I found myself writing dialogue only to delete and try again once I realized that this or that character couldn’t possibly know the thing I’d just made them say. Not yet at least.

From a certain perspective, this job was slightly easier because I was only ever writing from the perspective of one person, Kassia. I chose very deliberately to write this book in a first-person narrative. This made the business of keeping straight who knew what at any given point much easier, I think. But it still didn’t mean that other characters might not give things away in their conversations with Kassia. How to realistically and authentically write dialogue for a character who knows a secret they are not willing to tell was one of the most difficult things I faced in the drafting and editing process. How could Kassia quell her curiosity in the presence of the tight-lipped knower-of-things without wanting to throttle him or her to loosen their lips? If you’ve read the book, you know Kassia would have been quite willing to throttle people!

I suppose authors who write primarily in the mystery genre handle the unraveling of a mystery in their prose often enough that it comes easily. Maybe authors of formulaic stories do too. But for me, holding a vast cosmos of an idea in my head – playing at being a god – while trying to mimic the more limited mind of a mere mortal, was a challenge that never left me. As I write the second book, The King’s Daughter, the challenge is the same, and I’m not confident it will ever get easier for me.

To quote Disney’s 1992 animated movie Aladdin:

Aladdin: You're a prisoner?Genie: It's all part and parcel, the whole genie gig.[grows to a gigantic size]Genie: Phenomenal cosmic powers![shrinks down inside the lamp]Genie: Itty bitty living space!

As an author, I often feel like I have phenomenal cosmic powers. As a writer of fantasy I am not constrained by the historical record. My characters can go and do what they want. However, there are days that those powers must be tamed and subjected to the itty bitty living space of the plot and the necessity of pacing and good storytelling. I don’t claim to have mastered this, but I have learned that I will need to work hard at it with every book.

Sunday, 22 January 2017

In interviews, when asked what my favourite books are, I always give Legend as one of my all time favourites. But I realised recently that I had not read it since it was first published when I was a teenager! So I decided to give it a re-read (actually a listen, as I managed to get my hands on an old audio book version).

What I discovered is that David Gemmell's debut novel is still as powerful today to my forty-five-year-old self as it was to fifteen-year-old me. It is an amazing tale of heroism, sacrifice, duty and love. It made me laugh and cry and swept me along towards the epic final battle like a literary tsunami.

Gemmell's writing is so powerful and seemingly effortless. He manages to give great depth to all of the characters that flit across the pages. The protagonists, from the implacable Druss, Master of the Axe, to Regnak, the unlikely hero, to the ascetic members of the Thirty, are drawn with great compassion and feeling. Even small, walk-on parts are given a backstory that explains who they are and what makes them tick, often to only see them cut down in defence of what they believe in a page later. Gemmell is able to make you feel attached to any character, whether hero or villain, in only a couple of lines.

The most surprising thing for me was how obviously the events described in this novel have influenced my own writing. I kept listening to pieces of the story and thinking, "Woah! That is just like that bit in my books...!" I have never knowingly copied any part of Gemmell's writing (or anyone else's for that matter!), but the influences are very clear if you know what you are looking for.

If you only ever read one of Gemmell's books, read this one. I don't think anyone has ever done fast-paced epic fantasy better than Gemmell, and Legend is arguably his best book.

Saturday, 7 January 2017

Paul Fraser Collard's brilliant lovable rogue, Jack Lark, returns in this sequel to The Scarlet Thief. This time Lark finds himself in India, just before the terrible events of the Mutiny. Collard paints a colourful picture of the life of the British military in the middle of the nineteenth century. It is a strange life where the colonial British live in denial of the fact that they are surrounded by millions of Indians who do not relish being lorded over by these pasty, supercilious Europeans. The officers of the station where Jack is posted are as out of place in the dusty swelter of the Indian climate as Jack the impostor is out of place in the Officers' Mess.

The story is fast and furious, with the same kind of blood-splattering action that you would expect if you have read of Jack's previous adventures in the Crimea. Collard doesn't pull any punches when it comes to the horrors of war, and the set-piece battles are brutal and intense.

But it is not all blood, guts and the stench of gun powder. The tale is filled with twists and memorable, larger than life characters, from a villainous political officer, an exotic princess, the eponymous noble and honourable Maharajah, a spiteful and jealous lieutenant, and a lovely English rose, who blooms in the sultry Indian heat and captures more than one heart.

The Maharajah's General is a ripping yarn, and a satisfyingly energetic romp through a fictional Indian kingdom where Jack Lark once again shows he may not have been born into the officer class, but he can lead men with panache and vigour and he will not stand by and watch wrongdoing, whoever the culprit.

In this, the first book in the Lost King series, Martin Lake explores the aftermath of the cataclysmic events of 1066. Lake has chosen to tell the tale from the perspective of Edgar Atheling, a character I barely knew existed and one that certainly deserves to have his story told.

The book is fast-paced and on more than one occasion I found myself wondering how Edgar was going to escape from some of the sticky situations in which he finds himself. In The Flame of Resistance, Martin Lake spins a ripping yarn of loyal huscarls, evil earls, proud kings, intrigue and pitched battles for the kingdom of England, bringing the late eleventh century to vivid life.